Natural gardening methods turn yard into wildlife haven

By Levi J. Long
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

	STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Leila Martin and her husband, Dale, have transformed their Bellevue back yard into a chemical-free bird sanctuary over the past 20 years by using natural garden techniques. Over the years, the Martins reduced their once-vast lawn to a couple of small patches.
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In Leila and Dale Martin's back yard, moss grows wild on a toolshed roof. Old tree stumps, scattered throughout the yard, hold plants tumbling down aged trunks. Mason bees ramble up the southern wall of their Bellevue home, alongside golden hops.

"Those aren't the ones used in beer; lots of people ask," said Leila Martin, 75, pointing to the hops, a perennial climbing vine.

Martin, whose yard encompasses all things Northwestern wild, has been using natural gardening techniques since the mid-1950s, long before campaigns urging environmentally friendly yard care were created. She has taken up the use of natural methods to keep her garden a pesticide- and chemical-free haven for herself and for birds who've flocked to her yard.

On the Web As part of Northwest Natural Yard Days, numerous products are available at a discount through local retailers: dnr.metrokc.gov/swd/resrecy/events/retail.asp

It's a message the King County Natural Resources and Parks Department wants to spread.

This month, the county joins with local cities and water providers to kick off Northwest Natural Yard Days, a two-month campaign to encourage and teach gardeners to practice natural yard care.

"When people think of natural yards, they think of woody, wild and overgrown. But this is about being smart with gardening practices," says Patricia Burgess, a resource-conservation-program administrator with Bellevue Utilities.

Tips for an environmentally friendly yard • Start with prevention. Build healthy soil, select disease-resistant plants and pull weeds by hand before they spread. • Leave grass clippings on the lawn where they decompose, reducing your need to fertilize. • Identify the problem before you spray, squash or stomp. Most bugs are good bugs, such as mason bees and ladybugs. • Accept a few weeds and a little insect damage; give natural predators time to control pests. • Select the least-toxic control method. Many less-toxic products are now available. • Replace problem plants with more pest-resistant ones. • Conserve water with water timers and soaker hoses. • Reduce harmful chemicals that can run into streams by using insecticidal soap, weed pullers and organic fertilizers and moss control. If you have more questions, call the Natural Lawn and Garden Hotline: 206-633-0224. Source: King County Natural Resources and Parks

For Martin, using native plants and environmentally friendly gardening techniques was a part of her childhood. Growing up in rural Bellevue during the Depression years of the 1930s, she learned to use available materials. Example: Using found metals as borders in the yard.

She said birds helped plant the trees lining her property.

"They dropped the seeds here and there, and I let them at it. There's no design work, it just sort of happened," she said.

Instead of using weed killers, she pulls weeds by hand. Instead of a gas-operated mower, she uses an electric mulcher to reduce air pollution.

To save water, she sets out a bucket in her yard to collect rainwater and seeks out drought-tolerant plants — such as the salal evergreen shrub and Mediterranean plants such as garden sage and rosemary — to reduce water use.

Such practices are important, said Burgess, noting that Seattle Public Utilities estimates that lawn watering accounts for more than 40 percent of summer water use.

"There's a misconception that it rains all the time (in the Northwest). But it's still important to conserve as much water as possible," she said.

A federal ruling in January restricts the use of eight pesticides within 60 feet of salmon-bearing streams in Washington — acephate, carbaryl, chlorothalonil, diazion, malathion, pendimethalin, trifluralin and 2, 4-D. Retailers are required to post warning signs by products containing those chemicals.

Karen May, a project manager with King County Solid Waste Division, who recently toured the Martins' yard, said the site provides one of the best examples of how natural yard care can work and the positive impact it can have on a community.

"Every day we make choices that affect the environment," she said. "When everyone in the neighborhood is doing the same thing, it creates a cumulative effect."

For Martin, it means she can continue to listen to the songs of the sparrows, wrens and robins that perch in her yard.

"This is pretty much my sanctuary, as it is theirs," she said.

Levi J. Long: 206-464-2061 or levilong@seattletimes.com

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